Pick AssemblyAI if
voice-product engineers who will pick Universal-3.5 Pro vs Universal-2 and close the socket.
Read the AssemblyAI pageAssemblyAI vs Gladia
Our take
Pick AssemblyAI if voice-product engineers who will pick Universal-3.5 Pro vs Universal-2 and close the socket. Pick Gladia if voice and media teams who will spend the €50 starter credits (~312 async hours on Solaria-3) and then top up a prepaid wallet, not a team looking for a $20 meeting-notes seat. Skip AssemblyAI if people who want a local MIT model (OpenAI Whisper) with no vendor invoice.
AssemblyAI
Voice AI API (pre-recorded STT
Best for
AssemblyAI Hours of audio billed on a rate card
Gladia Hours of audio billed in euros
Free plan
AssemblyAI $0 · $50, no credit card. Free-tier streaming concurrency 5 new streams/min vs PAYG 100
Gladia No free plan
Lowest paid
AssemblyAI Universal-2 (pre-recorded) $0.15
Gladia Self-serve async €0.16
Next step up
AssemblyAI Universal-3.5 Pro (pre-recorded) $0.21
Gladia Self-serve real-time €0.68
Coding agent
AssemblyAI Voice Agent API
Gladia
Watch out
AssemblyAI Streaming bills idle socket time
Gladia €50 is a one-time grant
Last checked
AssemblyAI 2026-10-20 · assemblyai.com/pricing
Gladia 2026-10-22 · gladia.io/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Gladia if
voice and media teams who will spend the €50 starter credits (~312 async hours on Solaria-3) and then top up a prepaid wallet, not a team looking for a $20 meeting-notes seat.
Read the Gladia page